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Register a new userThe Ursa Major Association of Galaxies. VI: A relative dearth of gas-rich dwarf galaxies
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We determined the HI mass function of galaxies in the Ursa Major association of galaxies using a blind VLA-D array survey, consisting of 54 pointings in a cross pattern, covering the centre as well as the outskirts of the Ursa Major volume. The calculated HI mass function has best-fitting Schechter parameters {theta}^* = 0.19+/-0.11 Mpc^{-3}, log(M^*_{HI}/M_{odot}) = 9.8+/-0.8 and {alpha} = -0.92+/-0.16. The high-mass end is determined by a complementary, targeted WSRT survey, the low-mass end is determined by the blind VLA survey. The slope is significantly shallower than the slopes of the HIPASS ({alpha} = -1.37+/-0.03+/-0.05) and ALFALFA ({alpha} = -1.33+/-0.02) HI mass functions, which are measured over much larger volumes and cover a wider range of cosmic environments: There is a relative lack of low HI mass galaxies in the Ursa Major region. This difference in the slope strongly hints at an environmental dependence of the HI mass function slope.
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We present DEIMOS multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) of 22 star-forming dwarf galaxies located in four gas-rich groups, including six newly-discovered dwarfs. Two of the galaxies are strong tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG) candidates based on our luminosity-metallicity relation definition. We model the rotation curves of these galaxies. Our sample shows low mass-to-light ratios (M/L=0.73$pm0.39M_odot/L_odot$) as expected for young, star-forming dwarfs. One of the galaxies in our sample has an apparently strongly-falling rotation curve, reaching zero rotational velocity outside the turnover radius of $r_{turn}=1.2r_e$. This may be 1) a polar ring galaxy, with a tilted bar within a face-on disk; 2) a kinematic warp. These scenarios are indistinguishable with our current data due to limitations of slit alignment inherent to MOS-mode observations. We consider whether TDGs can be detected based on their tidal radius, beyond which tidal stripping removes kinematic tracers such as H$alpha$ emission. When the tidal radius is less than about twice the turnover radius, the expected falling rotation curve cannot be reliably measured. This is problematic for as much as half of our sample, and indeed more generally, galaxies in groups like these. Further to this, the H$alpha$ light that remains must be sufficiently bright to be detected; this is only the case for three (14%) galaxies in our sample. We conclude that the falling rotation curves expected of tidal dwarf galaxies are intrinsically difficult to detect.
We present new upper limits on the neutral hydrogen (HI) content within the stellar half-light ellipses of 15 Galactic dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs), derived from pointed observations with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) as well as Arecibo L-band Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey and Galactic All-Sky Survey (GASS) data. All of the limits Mlim are more stringent than previously reported values, and those from the GBT improve upon contraints in the literature by a median factor of 23. Normalizing by V-band luminosity Lv and dynamical mass Mdyn, we find Mlim/Lv ~ 10^{-3} Mo/Lo and Mlim/Mdyn ~ 5 x 10^{-5}, irrespective of location in the Galactic halo. Comparing these relative HI contents to those of the Local Group and nearby neighbor dwarfs compiled by McConnachie, we find that the Galactic dSphs are extremely gas-poor. Our HI upper limits therefore provide the clearest picture yet of the environmental dependence of the HI content in Local Volume dwarfs. If ram pressure stripping explains the dearth of HI in these systems, then orbits in a relatively massive Milky Way are favored for the outer halo dSph Leo I, while Leo II and Canes Venatici I have had a pericentric passage in the past. For Draco and Ursa Minor, the interstellar medium mass that should accumulate through stellar mass loss in between pericentric passages exceeds Mlim by a factor of ~30. In Ursa Minor, this implies that either this material is not in the atomic phase, or that another mechanism clears the recycled gas on shorter timescales.
Results are presented of a deep optical survey of the Ursa Major Cluster, a spiral-rich cluster of galaxies at a distance of 18.6 Mpc which contains about 30% of the light but only 5% of the mass of the nearby Virgo Cluster. Fields around known cluster members and a pattern of blind fields along the major and minor axes of the cluster were studied with mosaic CCD cameras on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The dynamical crossing time for the Ursa Major Cluster is only slightly less than a Hubble time. Most galaxies in the local Universe exist in similar moderate density environments. The Ursa Major Cluster is therefore a good place to study the statistical properties of dwarf galaxies since this structure is at an evolutionary stage representative of typical environments yet has enough galaxies that reasonable counting statistics can be accumulated. The main observational results of our survey are: (i) The galaxy luminosity function is flat, with a logarithmic slope alpha = -1.1 for -17 < M_R < -11, from a power-law fit. The error in alpha is likely to be less than 0.2 and is dominated by systematic errors, primarily associatedd with uncertainties in assigning membership to specific galaxies. This faint end slope is quite different to what was seen in the Virgo Cluster where alpha=-2.26. (ii) Dwarf galaxies are as frequently found to be blue dwarf irregulars as red dwarf spheroidals in the blind cluster fields. The density of red dwarfs is significantly higher in the fields around luminous members than in the blind fields. The most important result is the failure to detect many dwarfs. If the steep luminosity function claimed for the Virgo Cluster were valid for Ursa Major then in our blind fields we should have found about 1000 galaxies with -17 < M_R <-11 where we have found two dozen.
We present a B, V color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of the Milky Way dwarf satellite Ursa Major II (UMa II), spanning the magnitude range from V ~ 15 to V ~ 23.5 mag and extending over a 18 {times} 18 arcmin2 area centered on the galaxy. Our photometry goes down to about 2 magnitudes below the galaxys main sequence turn-off, that we detected at V ~ 21.5 mag. We have discovered a bona-fide RR Lyrae variable star in UMa II, which we use to estimate a conservative dereddened distance modulus for the galaxy of (m-M)0 = 17.70{pm}0.04{pm}0.12 mag, where the first error accounts for the uncertainties of the calibrated photometry, and the second reflects our lack of information on the metallicity of the star. The corresponding distance to UMa II is 34.7 {pm} 0.6 ({pm} 2.0) kpc. Our photometry shows evidence of a spread in the galaxy subgiant branch, compatible with a spread in metal abundance in the range between Z=0.0001 and Z=0.001. Based on our estimate of the distance, a comparison of the fiducial lines of the Galactic globular clusters (GCs) M68 and M5 ([Fe/H]=-2.27 {pm} 0.04 dex and -1.33 {pm} 0.02 dex, respectively), with the position on the CMD of spectroscopically confirmed galaxy members, may suggest the existence of stellar populations of different metal abundance/age in the central region of UMa II.
Galaxy surveys have suggested that rapid and sustained decrease in the star-formation rate, quenching, in massive disk galaxies is frequently related to the presence of a bar. Optical and near-IR observations reveal that nearly 60% of disk galaxies in the local universe are barred, thus it is important to understand the relationship between bars and star formation in disk galaxies. Recent observational results imply that the Milky Way quenched about 9-10 Gyr ago, at the transition between the cessation of the growth of the kinematically hot, old, metal-poor thick disk and the kinematically colder, younger, and more metal-rich thin disk. Although perhaps coincidental, the quenching episode could also be related to the formation of the bar. To explore the relation between bar formation and star formation in gas rich galaxies quantitatively, we simulated gas-rich disk isolated galaxies. Our simulations include prescriptions for star formation, stellar feedback, and for regulating the multi-phase interstellar medium. We find that the action of stellar bar efficiently quenches star formation, reducing the star-formation rate by a factor of 10 in less than 1 Gyr. Analytical and self-consistent galaxy simulations with bars suggest that the action of the stellar bar increases the gas random motions within the co-rotation radius of the bar. Indeed, we detect an increase in the gas velocity dispersion up to 20-35 km/s at the end of the bar formation phase. The star-formation efficiency decreases rapidly, and in all of our models, the bar quenches the star formation in the galaxy. The star-formation efficiency is much lower in simulated barred compared to unbarred galaxies and more rapid bar formation implies more rapid quenching.
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